Mitchell, Elvis, "T.V. Tough Love: Dellaventura is the Funniest New Series on Television, through Sheer Inadvertence," in New Times (Los Angeles), 13 November 1997.

Hamill, Denis, "That'll Be Two for Dinner: Danny Aiello and Bob Giraldi Cook Up a Movie in Tribeca," in New York Daily News, 13 February 2000.

* * *

In the Hollywood studio era Danny Aiello would have made a respectable living as a character actor representing the tough urban guy from the school of hard knocks. His urban upbringing has a definite bearing on his work in the theater and movies. He is a product of New York and can be considered a New York actor. Many of his films and television productions have a New York setting and theme.

He grew up in a large Italian family, with a father who was missing most of the time; his mother and siblings struggled. He had very little schooling, ran with street gangs, went into the Army, married, and found himself with a family at an early age. During a particularly desperate time in his life he resorted to criminal activity (which he freely admits) in order to pay the rent and feed his family.

He came to acting relatively late, more or less by chance, with virtually no training; even so he was soon working with important directors Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Ritt, and Woody Allen. Over the course of his career to date, his roles have ranged from the vicious murdering cop in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) to more compassionate cop roles such as in The Preppie Murder. He has played small roles in many important films: The Front; Bloodbrothers, an impressive, underrated New York film; and Jacob's Ladder. In more major roles he has shown a distinctive acting ability, such as the crude, insensitive husband of The Purple Rose of Cairo; and the Momma's Boy, Johnny Cammareri, in Moonstruck, which brought out his comedic abilities. He is quite successful as the lead in The Pickle, a film that may be absurd in its concept, but which shows him with a nasty streak, but also great comic talent as a Hollywood director struggling to overcome a string of flops.

He has also had leading roles as Jack Ruby in Ruby (1992) and Chester Grant in The Closer (1990; a role recreated from the 1976 Broadway play Wheelbarrow Closers), but while these parts share the same characteristics—small-time loser and hood and paid FBI informer in the first; hard-driven, bitter, and nasty man alienated from his family in the second—the films themselves are not successful. In many ways this underlines the dilemma in his acting career. If Aiello has good writers and directors, he can shine; if not, he will fall into a characteristic mold: a loud-mouthed and profane persona with a trademark laugh that is not always pertinent to the action of the film.

His most important film to date, the one that has gained him the most fame and recognition, is Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. He is excellent in this film as the embattled Sal Frangoni, holding on to his pizza parlor in an all-black Bedford-Stuyvesant. Some of his best acting occurs in the interchanges between father and sons, and this type of relationship, both in real life and on the screen, has great importance to him. While vituperative, angry, opinionated, and frustrated to the point of violence, he is still able to convey warmth and compassion for the African Americans that he lives with. He says to his bigoted son: "Why is there so much anger in you? I never had trouble with these people. They grew up on my food. I'm very proud of it. Sal's is here to stay. I'm your father and I love you." Aiello claims that there is about 85 percent of himself in the film. His wife in real life claims that there is 100 percent.

While this film has been the most important of his career, his most successful films have been the ones in which he portrays a family man, a loving father and husband, working hard to keep his family together. The two films that show him with this wonderful range of acting ability, along with his characteristic hard edges, are 29th Street and Once Around. The essence of Aiello's acting may well be found in these films; his performances show great depth, compassion, sympathy, and humor. The films are moving and successful in large part because of him—probably due to the opportunity they offer Aiello to act out much of what he lacked as a child when his father was not around, and there was not much love and support from his father for his children. Danny Aiello is making up for those hard times, and being quite successful at it.

—Allen Cohen

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Career: Actor, producer, and writer. Manhattan Pictures International, New York, NY, partner. Previously worked in a grocery store, in a bowling alley, as a shoe shiner, as a truck loader, and selling newspapers, 1940s and 1950s; worked as a baggage clerk, then a dispatcher, with the Greyhound bus company, New York City, 1957–67; was a bouncer at the Improvisation (comedy club), New York City; also worked as a pool hustler. Served as president of Local 1202 of the Amalgamated Transit Union; was formerly a union shop steward. Involved with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Hole in the Wall Gang, and the Frances Aiello Day Treatment Center. Military service: U.S. Army, 1951–54; served in Germany.

Awards, Honors:Theatre World Award, 1975, for Lampost Reunion; Obie Award, distinguished performance, Village Voice, 1978, for Gemini; Emmy Award, best performer in a children's program, and Variety Award, 1980, both for "Family of Strangers"; Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, c. 1985, for Hurlyburly; Gemini Award nomination, best guest performance in a series by an actor or actress, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, 1988, for Night Heat; Boston Society of Film Critics Award, best supporting actor, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Achievement Award, best supporting actor, Chicago Film Critics Association Award, best supporting actor, 1989, Academy Award nomination, best supporting actor, Golden Globe Award nomination, best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture, 1990, all for Do the Right Thing; Career Achievement Award, Motion Picture Bookers Club, 1989; National Board of Review Award (with others), best acting by an ensemble, 1994, for Pret-a-Porter; Faberage Award and two Joseph Jefferson nominations for That Championship Season.

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